Oregon State has lost its football coach, and now his reasoning for leaving has become clear. He is leaving millions of dollars on the table because he does not think that is the right thing to do, and he knows that it is very hard for a school to recover if he takes all their money. He had some of his texts with a reporter in Oregon released, and that is where his opinions come to light. You cannot blame Gary Andersen for hating the way that people promote their own agendas, and that might be why he decided he could not take it anymore.
Andersen left Wisconsin
Do we all remember when Andersen abruptly left Wisconsin to go coach at Oregon State? He left a very good job to take the red-headed stepchild job in Oregon. We all know that the job at the University of Oregon is much better, and Andersen ran out there just to get away from Wisconsin. Who knows what he hated about the job in Madison, but he clearly had a problem. Now he is showing that he does not like how the coaching world works. He has said in these texts shown by ESPN and The Oregonian that he was upset with the way his coaches self-promoted. They were not doing their jobs, and he thought that he had the wrong people on the staff.
The culture is sickening
If Andersen is right that everyone in coaching is in a game of self-promotion, then he is right to be sick of it and walk away.
I have no idea where he will get a job, but he probably does not care at the moment. He really just did not want to be party to the things that the coaches were doing that put them above the students. Gary Andersen is an idealist, and he is showing that he will put his money where his mouth is. He could have taken a huge buyout from Oregon State, but he does not want to.
It appears that he does not want to be the self-promoter that he has grown to hate.
We knew this information
We have all suspected for years that college football coaches were snake oil salesmen who were just looking out for themselves. Gary Andersen has been around long enough to know what that culture looks like, and he has made it very clear that he is not long for the task.
We have confirmation from someone who has had big profile jobs that this is how these guys operate every day. Does this make college football harder for you to watch? It makes it hard for me to watch, but I will continue to pay attention. This is my job, and it is also something I enjoy. However, I hope that some people take a look in the mirror to see if they are aware of what Andersen has brought light to.
